South Africa’s employment landscape is in flux. Businesses face a pressing dual challenge: stemming the tide of talent exodus while unlocking the full potential of their current workforces.

Between emigration, semigration, the global brain drain and persistent skills shortages, entities are being forced to rethink traditional talent strategies. More and more, they are turning to artificial intelligence as a powerful enabler, not to replace people, but to see them more clearly.

This is why Workday is trying to make hidden potential visible, a mission that aligns closely with its broader vision of using AI and machine learning to boost skills, facilitate internal mobility and retain talent by ensuring people are seen not just for their job titles but for the skills they possess and could grow into.

From job based to skills based

Historically, recruitment and workforce planning in South Africa, like many parts of the world, have been job centric. People were hired based on a fixed set of job descriptions, and career paths were rigid. But that model is increasingly unfit for a world where roles evolve faster than organisational charts can keep up.

Workday is championing a skills-based approach, powered by its Skills Cloud, which aggregates and infers skills from a variety of data points across the enterprise. Instead of matching candidates to positions, Workday’s system matches them to actual skills they have, uncovering lateral mobility opportunities, career advancement opportunities and cross-functional capabilities that are there but would otherwise be invisible.

This shift is felt keenly in South Africa, where high youth unemployment exists alongside significant talent gaps in specialised roles. By making skills, not positions, the currency of talent, firms can begin to address this imbalance.

AI as a lens for internal mobility

One of the greatest untapped sources of talent is already inside most organisations. But without the right tools, leaders often fail to recognise the full capabilities of their own people. AI helps bridge that gap.

Through Workday’s platform, South African employers are able to spot adjacent skills and uncover hidden internal candidates that might not look like the ideal fit on paper but can excel with little training or support. This not only increases internal mobility but also retains talent.

Employees who see growth paths within their employers are less likely to leave, especially important in a country facing significant emigration of skilled workers.

It is not uncommon to see companies struggle with high attrition while still posting open roles externally. Workday’s AI tools help them understand that that role could potentially be filled by someone already in their ecosystem.

Building resilience amid the brain drain

South Africa’s brain drain, where top skills and professionals are leaving in droves for better opportunities abroad, has hit sectors like finance, healthcare and engineering particularly hard. But Workday argues that AI can help companies build resilience by tapping into underutilised or overlooked talent.

What is key here is not only retaining the people at the top of their game but those in the middle who can grow into leadership roles. To do that, their skills need to be seen clearly.

One way to gain that visibility is to enable personalised learning pathways and predictive insights into workforce capability. For instance, Workday empowers organisations to grow their own talent pipelines rather than always sourcing from outside. This kind of proactive development is key to rebuilding a robust middle layer of skilled professionals in South Africa.

Equity, visibility and the human factor

Beyond business benefits, there is also a strong equity argument for AI-powered talent programmes. Career advancement used to go to the loudest or most networked individuals, but AI democratises this by helping talent rise to the surface objectively and across the board.

But it’s not just about algorithms. Workday is quick to emphasise the need for ethical AI practices, including transparency, explainability and responsible data use. Workday’s AI is built with governance at its core, ensuring that entities can trust the insights they’re acting on.

Workday is very deliberate about how it builds AI. This is not about hype, but about helping people be seen and grow.

A vision rooted in South African realities

What is really fascinating about Workday’s vision is the way in which it’s based on the real issues that South African businesses and workers are facing. Whether the issue is semigration, retention of high performers or youth unemployment, the message is the same: technology, if cleverly applied, can be an empowering force.

Sure, AI helps automate decisions and cut costs, but it is so much more than that. It helps to surface the hidden, overlooked and underestimated potential within South Africa’s workforce. For local companies ready to invest in their people, the tools now exist to do it at scale and with precision.